When I was a teenager I worked in a boat yard. Back then next door was a fuel oil company that had started out as a coal shipper. What was left of the two masted schooner used to ship coal up to the Boston area was rotting away on a hauling car next to our shop building.

When I bought my first house in 1979, it still had the original American coal boiler from 1922. It had been converted with an oil burner gun installed into the ash door and the grates taken out. The cast iron baffle plate inside the upper part of the fire box was burned through. I went to the local plumbing supply and they still had the plates. Still worked great at transferring heat to water. When I sold the place in 92, it was still in good shape.

When the oil prices jumped, I used a potbelly stove in the basement for a few years. The built-in coal bin came in handy !

Then, just by luck I bought this house, which had belonged to the towns' two coal dealers.